Otago were sent in to bat first at a warm but slightly breezy Sunnyvale Park in Dunedin totalled 110-6 in their first 10 over innings. Chris Gaffaney lead the way with a whirlwind 42, ably assisted by Craig Cumming (16) and Andrew Hore (15). Karl O’Dowda, recently back from a professional engagement in Norfolk, scored 14.Darren Reekers was the most effective bowler for the red-and-blacks while Cleighten Cornelius (1-20), Shane Bond (1-10) and Warren Wisneski (1-34) assisted well.Gaffaney hit powerfully off the front foot and showed what an effective Max player he is with some big hits. But it was Reekers with his 2 wickets for 15 runs who probably played the most effective part in the innings.Canterbury began uncertainly and one stage were two wickets down for two runs. But Reekers and Hamish Barton, with some lusty hitting, set about restoring the situation. They scored 31 and 30 respectively, off some Otago bowling which never really found a line and length.When Cornelius came to the crease Canterbury were 96-4, and then 96-5 with the departure of Bond for 23, but he quickly consolidated his team’s position with a fine 41 – helped by some wayward Otago bowling.Canterbury totalled 164-8 and gained an invaluable first innings lead of 54. Kerry Walmsley, bowling for his new province, took 2-23, while Neil Rushton (2-36) and Karl O’Dowda (3-13) were especially handy.In its second innings Otago found themselves 24-4 and looked pretty shaky. But Craig Pryor, son of the former Maori All Black Alby Pryor, hit very powerfully for 48 – including 32 off one over of Cornelius.The only other innings of any substance was a brisk 19 from Mark Billcliff. For Canterbury Warren Wisneski took 4-30, while Cornelius (2-32) and Danny Bulman (2-19) also captured the wickets.Needing 83 to win Canterbury started well, and after three overs were 25 without loss.Wisneski and Brad Doody were batting well and the total went to 53 before Wisneski was out to a fine catch by Billcliff who dived forward at deep mid-on.The rot then set in with wickets falling again at 53, 55, 55, 57 and 63. With the scoreboard saying 63-6 Otago hopes soared. Canterbury had played unnecessarily freely and had lost five wickets for four runs in the space of 12 balls.Wicket-keeper Ben Yock gathered a few singles, as did Cornelius, and the equation got to 16 runs off eight balls needed.But Yock was not content to gather the runs and played three fine boundary shots with two fours and a six to win the game for Canterbury by four wickets with three balls to spare.The Otago bowling was dominated by O’Dowda who took 3-8 off his two overs, while Neil Rushton and Craig Cumming captured a victim a piece.In the final analysis, the game could have gone either way but Canterbury’s first innings lead was the telling point and with the batting and bowling by both teams looking in the main a little rusty they would have been very grateful for that lead.

Prashant Joshi and Sairaj Bahutule shared the honours on the secondday of the West Zone Ranji Trophy league match between Mumbai andSaurashtra at Gandhidham on Saturday. While the Saurashtra openerscored a patient 113, the Mumbai leg spinner finished with six wicketsfor 104 runs from 50 overs.Joshi, who had sustained the Saurashtra innings on the opening daywith an unbeaten 84 out of a total of 158 for three, was leg before toBahutule. He occupied the crease for 500 minutes, faced 391 balls andhit 15 fours. He was fourth out at 233 in the 122nd over.The other overnight batsman Birju Pathak scored 47 in a stay of fourhours. He faced 174 balls and hit four of them to the ropes. He wasalso leg before to Bahutule. Valuable knocks by late order batsmenRakesh Dhuru (30), Niraj Odedara (23) and Kamal Chavada (26) pushedthe score along, which was also inflated by 47 extras. Saurashtraultimately totalled 354 which was compiled off 162.3 overs and aftereleven hours occupation of the crease.Mumbai openers Vinayak Mane (14) and Wasim Jaffar (46) battedconfidently till stumps as the visitors were 63 for no loss off 16overs. Jaffar, much the dominant partner, has so far faced 41 ballsand hit seven of them to the fence.

Gloucestershire remedied some of their early-season batting problems with a determined approach that enabled them to share the first-day honours at Edgbaston.Having collected just two batting points in their first four games, Gloucestershire doubled their total but they needed 104 overs to get to 250.They were kept in check by a tight Warwickshire attack on a decent batting pitch and were indebted to three half-century partnerships for holding things together.Kim Barnett and Dominic Hewson put on 80 for the first wicket before they both fell to Vasbert Drakes in an over in which the paceman took three wickets.Skipper Mark Alleyne and Chris Taylor then added 98 in 45 painstaking overs to rebuild the innings and, after they went in quick succession, it was left to Tim Hancock and Reggie Williams to regroup with an unbroken seventh-wicket stand worth 61.Alleyne’s 53 was his highest score of the season and Taylor’s 44 his best of the summer but both fell when Warwickshire bowled off-spinner Neil Smith and Mark Wagh in tandem.Taylor was leg before working Wagh’s fourth ball to leg and Alleyne, who struck five fours and faced 147 balls, then pushed Smith to slip.Jeremy Snape also perished to Smith when he carved him to point but Hancock and Williams nudged Gloucestershire closer to 300 in an innings for the first time this season as they closed on 261 for six.Earlier Drakes flattened Kim Barnett’s middle stump as the former England batsman pushed forward and was bowled through the gate, Hewson edged low to second slip where David Hemp held the catch and Matt Windows went lbw working to leg as he shuffled in front of his stumps.

NORTHAMPTON – Adam Gilchrist will lead Australia in the one-day cricket match against Northamptonshire tomorrow while Steve Waugh takes a rest.Steve and Mark Waugh, Wade Seccombe and Shane Warne have been omitted as Australia continues its policy of rotating players.Fast bowler Nathan Bracken has been named in the XI despite having a minor shoulder strain.The match, starting at 8pm (AEST), is the last for Australia before back-to-back internationals against Pakistan and England in the tri-series tournament at Cardiff on the weekend.The team is: Adam Gilchrist (c), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Ian Harvey, Damien Fleming, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Nathan Bracken (12th man to be added).

Mark Alleyne’s rich vein of form continued with his second century in successive matches to put Gloucestershire into a strong position at the end of the first day at Derby.The Gloucestershire captain added an unbeaten 114 to the 132 he made against Durham at Gloucester and with Kim Barnett, Chris Taylor and Jeremy Snape helping themselves to half-centuries, the visitors ended on 374-4.It added up to another dispiriting day for Derbyshire who took only one wicket between lunch and the close.Tim Munton bowled an impressive 10 over spell in the morning but Gloucestershire’s batsmen encountered few problems on a slow pitch which is expected to take turn later in the game.Barnett got Gloucestershire moving with some typically flashing strokes on his return to the county he left in 1998.His 73 included 10 fours, two of them all run and he looked set for a century until he played around a ball from Paul Aldred.Munton had snared Dominic Hewson and Matt Windows cheaply but Taylor and Alleyne added 147 in 48 overs before Taylor, who took a six and two fours from a Paul Aldred over, was lbw to the pace bowler for 83.Alleyne went to his century, his 21st in first-class cricket, from 202 balls and had shared an unbroken stand of 103 with Snape when the close signalled an end to Derbyshire’s torment.

Ben Smith smashed his second century of the season and his best score for two years as Leicestershire set Surrey a formidable victory target of 536 runs in the CricInfo Championship clash at Grace Road.Home captain Vince Wells finally called a halt to his side’s second innings run feast with the total at 472 for eight, leaving Surrey to face seven overs before the close.And, predictably, after a day in the field in the sauna-like conditions, the visitors lost a wicket with Nadeem Shahid edging Devon Malcolm low to third slip Trevor Ward with the score at 20. By the close Surrey were 28 for one, still needing another 508 runs for an unlikely win.With two days remaining the home side are firmly in the driving seat and, weather permitting, are hot favourites to clinch victory.It was certainly a stark contrast to the first day when 20 wickets fell, and Leicestershire’s performance second time round merely emphasised the fact that the pitch was blameless.Smith was the cornerstone of their efforts with a magnificent 179 off 281 balls with 21 fours before driving a catch to cover off the bowling of Adam Hollioake. Along the way Smith shared a third-wicket stand of 167 with Daniel Marsh and then put on 108 with Neil Burns for the seventh wicket.Marsh hammered 82 off 126 balls, the sixth time he has gone past 50 this summer, while wicket-keeper Burns was unbeaten on 66, his best Championship score of the season.Surrey were handicapped by the fact that leg spinner Ian Salisbury was off the field all day with a foot injury. This put a heavy workload on Saqlain Mushtaq but he responded with a marathon unbroken spell of 47.2 overs, bowling throughout the day until the declaration came. He finished with figures of five for 172 – and then came in as night-watchman when Shahid was out.

Australia, requiring only a draw in the Third Test at Trent Bridge to retain the Ashes, have named an unchanged side to that which has beaten England in the first two Tests this summer.The announcement, which will surprise no one, means that Justin Langer misses out once more, as in-form Damien Martyn continues in the middle order.The settled side the Aussies have been able to field is in stark contrast to the chopping and changing forced upon England, who must win at Trent Bridge to have any chance of wresting the Ashes away from the rampant Australians.With their first choice middle order batsmen, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan all out, the urn is very much odds-on to be in the continued possession of the tourists come Monday evening.Captain Steve Waugh, however, is taking nothing for granted, pointing out that his team are always focused on the next Test Match: “It is really important to treat every Test Match as a special event, because it is.”The pitch looks pretty good. There is a good covering of grass, and it will not be an easy decision to make if we win the toss.”He also highlighted the return to form of Brett Lee and Shane Warne, both of whom have been taking wickets recently. Coupled with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, the ‘Dream Team’ will be looking to once more give England’s batsmen nightmares.Australian Team: M Slater, M Hayden, R Ponting, M Waugh, S Waugh (capt), D Martyn, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, J Gillespie, G McGrath.

Glamorgan beat Surrey by three wickets in a CricInfo Championship Division One relegation nail-biter at The Oval today.Seemingly coasting at 163-3, chasing 200 for victory, Martin Bicknell (5-48 and 11-117 in the match, the fourth time he has taken 10 wickets in a game) took four wickets in seven balls before 19-year-old Mark Wallace saw the Welshmen home safely after tea.Surrey had lost their last three wickets for 12-runs in 47-balls in the morning, failing to set the 240 target that Surrey captain Bicknell had been looking for.Steve Watkin (4-28) and Simon Jones (3-36) returned season’s best figures, giving Glamorgan two and-a-half sessions to score 200. At lunch on 62-2 the match was evenly poised, with both Jimmy Maher and Matthew Maynard gone.However, a 70 ball, first 50 of the season, from opener Ian Thomas and a composed 51 from Mike Powell left Glamorgan just 37-runs from victory when Bicknell began a third spell.Smarting from the belief that he has “no chance” of an England recall after eight years in the international wilderness, Bicknell found pace and bounce in a four-wicket burst immediately prior to tea. Adrian Dale (15), Robert Croft (a second pair in three games), Powell and Darren Thomas were dismissed in his devastating spell.Dale and Powell edged seaming deliveries – both caught by ‘keeper Alec Stewart. Croft was lbw half-forward and Thomas fended a bouncer to Ben Hollioake, who caught a good one in the gully.But after tea former England U19 ‘keeper, Wallace, calmly saw his side home to a second CricInfo Championship win of the season.This leaves them just 12 points behind Surrey in the relegation dogfight.Meanwhile, Surrey all-rounder Gary Butcher’s county future is unclear as he is finding being dropped to accommodate returning Test players “hard to take.”

England’s hopes of squaring the Under-19 Test series against the West Indies foundered on a resilient fourth-wicket partnership and the inclement weather at Trent Bridge.The game was abandoned at tea on the fourth and final day with the tourists on 264-3, a lead of 60.When play began West Indies, at 45 for one, still needed another 159 to make England bat again.However, West Indies captain Brenton Parchment and Vishal Arjune batted superblyfor 50 minutes, adding another 57 runs before Arjune was lbw to James Anderson for 47 off 78 balls, with seven fours.Parchment fell for 57 to a wild stroke off England captain and off spinner James Treadwell to leave the tourists somewhat precariously placed on 130-3.But Tonito Willett and Omari Banks ensured that no more wickets fell as they put on an unbroken stand of 134. Willett hit 87, including 13 boundaries, while his partner made an even 50 with seven fours.But then the weather set in and the players failed to re-appear after tea. The third and final Test is at the Riverside on Tuesday week.

Martin Bicknell and Saqlain Mushtaq provoked a Somerset collapse after the home side had reached 142-1, having won the toss on the opening day at Taunton.Four wickets fell for just 17 runs after tea, with Bicknell and Saqlain picking up two each, before Rob Turner and Ian Blackwell steadied things with a stand of 48 to help Somerset close on 207-6.After the morning session had been lost to steady rain, play finally got underway at 2.15pm, with 41 overs having been lost.Somerset were able to include Richard Johnson following his release from the England squad and had a further boost when skipper Jamie Cox won the toss and elected to bat.Cox and Matt Wood were soon making up for lost time as both found the boundary in the opening overs. Only Martin Bicknell of the Surrey bowlers caused any problems, going past the edge of Wood’s bat and seeing Cox kick the ball away from his stumps as it rolled towards them.It was Bicknell who made the breakthrough, yorking Wood, with the ball just flicking the bat before splaying the middle and off stumps. The 20-year-old batsman had made 24, with five fours, helping Cox put on 49.Cox and Mike Burns continued to punish anything loose. The Somerset captain brought up his half-century from 85 balls, with nine fours, and the partnership was worth 68 at tea as the home side reached 117-1 off 31 overs.But the rest of the day belonged largely to Surrey. Burns, on 38, was picked up off bat and pad to give Saqlain his first wicket and soon Peter Bowler doubled his tally by flicking a catch to mid-wicket.Cox had made 76 when carelessly cutting a short ball for Bicknell straight to Ben Hollioake at point, while Mark Lathwell drove all around a full-length ball from the paceman.Turner survived an appeal for a catch at third slip by Ian Ward offBicknell, with umpire Ray Julian ruling that the ball hadn’t carried, but fell for 29 to the last ball of the day, lbw to Ed Giddins.